Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/98

80 his 51st year. His body was carried to Rome, and was buried in the mausoleum of Augustus, who himself pronounced a funeral oration over it.

Dio Cassius tells us (52.1, &c.), that in the year B. C. 29 Augustus assembled his friends and counsellors Agrippa and Maecenas, demanding opinion as to whether it would be advisable for him to usurp monarchical power, or to restore to the nation its former republican government. This is corroborated by Suetonius (Octav. 28), who says that Augustus twice deliberated upon that subject. The speeches which Agrippa and Maecenas delivered on this occasion are given by Dio Cassius; but the artificial character of them makes them suspicious. However it does not seem likely from the general character of Dio Cassius as a historian that these speeches are invented by him; and it is not improbable, and such a supposition suits entirely the character of Augustus, that those speeches were really pronounced, though preconcerted between Augustus and his counsellors to make the Roman nation believe that the fate of the republic was still a matter of discussion, and that Augustus would not assume monarchical power till he had been convinced that it was necessary for the welfare of the nation. Besides, Agrippa, who according to Dio Cassius, advised Augustus to restore the republic, was a man whose political opinions had evidently a monarchical tendency.

Agrippa was one of the most distinguished and important men of the age of Augustus. He must be considered as a chief support of the rising monarchical constitution, and without Agrippa Augustus could scarcely have succeeded in making himself the absolute master of the Roman empire. Dio Cassius (54.29, &c.), Velleius Paterculus (2.79), Seneca (Ep. 94), and Horace (Od. 1.6), speak with equal admiration of his merits.

Pliny constantly refers to the Commentarii of Agrippa as an authority (Elenchus, iii. iv. v. vi, comp. 3.2), which may indicate certain official lists drawn up by him in the measurement of the Roman world under Augustus [AETHICUS HISTER], in which he may have taken part.

Agrippa left several children. By his first wife Pomponia, he had Vipsania, who was married to Tiberius Caesar, the successor of Augustus. By his second wife, Marcella, he had several children who are not mentioned; and by his third wife, Julia, he had two daughters, Julia, married to L. Aemilius Paullus, and Agrippina married to Germanicus, and three sons, Caius [C. CAESAR], Lucius [L. CAESAR], and AGRIPPA POSTUMUS. (Dio Cass. lib. 45-54; Liv. Epit. 117-136 ; Appian, Bell. Civ. lib. 5; Suet. Octav.; Frandsen, M. Vipsanius Agrippa, eine historische Untersuchung über dessen Leben und Wirken, Altona, 1836.)

There are several medals of Agrippa: in the one figured below, he is represented with a naval crown; on the reverse is Neptune indicating his success by sea.

AGRIPPI'N A I., 1. the youngest daughter of M. Vipsanius Agrippa and of Julia, the daughter of Augustus, was born some time before B. C. 12. She married Caesar Germanicus, the son of Drusus Nero Germanicus, by whom she had nine children. Agrippina was gifted with great powers of mind, a noble character, and all the moral and physical qualities that constituted the model of a Roman matron : her love for her husband was sincere and lasting, her chastity was spotless, her fertility was a virtue in the eyes of the Romans, and her attachment to her children was an eminent feature of her character. She yielded to one dangerous passion, ambition. Augustus shewed her particular attention and attachment. (Sueton. Calig. 8.) At the death of Augustus in A. D. 14, she was on the Lower Rhine with Germanicus, who com manded the legions there. Her husband was the idol of the army, and the legions on the Rhine, dissatisfied with the accession of Tiberius, manifested their intention of proclaiming Germanicus master of the state. Tiberius hated and dreaded Germanicus, and he shewed as much antipathy to Agrippina, as he had love to her elder sister, his first wife. In this perilous situation, Germanicus and Agrippina saved themselves by their prompt energy; he quelled the outbreak and pursued the war against the Germans. In the ensuing year his lieutenant Caecina, after having made an invasion into Germany, returned to the Rhine. The campaign was not inglorious for the Romans, but they were worn out by hardships, and perhaps harassed on their march by some bands of Germans. Thus the rumour was spread that the main body of the Germans was approaching to invade Gaul. Germanicus was absent, and it was proposed to destroy the bridge over the Rhine. (Comp. Strab. iv. p.194.) If this had been done, the retreat of Caecina's army would have been cut off, but it was saved by the firm opposition of Agrippina to such a cowardly measure. When the troops approached, she went to the bridge, acting as a general, and receiving the soldiers as they crossed it; the wounded among them were presented by her with clothes, and they received from her own hands everything necessary for the cure of their wounds. (Tac. Ann. 1.69.) Germanicus having been recalled by Tiberius, she accompanied her husband to Asia (A. D. 17), and after his death, or rather murder [GERMANICUS], she returned to Italy. She stayed some days at the island of Corcyra to recover from her grief, and then landed at Brundusium, accompanied by two of her children, and holding in her arms the urn with the ashes of her husband. At the news of her arrival, the port, the walls, and even the roofs of the houses were occupied by crowds of people who were anxious to see and salute her. She was solemnly received by the officers of two Praetorian cohorts, which Tiberius had sent to Brundusium for the purpose of accompanying her to Rome; the urn containing the ashes of Germanicus was borne by tribunes and centurions, and the funeral procession was received on its march by the magistrates of Calabria, Apulia, and Campania ; by Drusus, the son of Tiberius; Claudius, the brother of Germanicus; by the other childre of Germanicus; and at last, in the environs of Rome, by the consuls, the senate, and crowds of the Roman people. (Tac. Ann. iii, 1, &c.)